Given the sheer scale of the adjustments we have to make and the fact that the Export Land Model (google it) means the international oil MARKET really COULD drop far faster than the global oil depletion rate, I think we're in for a rough ride.

CNBC on EXPORT LAND MODEL

http://www.energybulletin.net/node/35271

I think we'll "make it" but that we're facing a Greater Depression.

EV's are on the way, but even the most optimistic projections only have them at about 10 million by 2016 (MIT) and Shai Agassi's FANTASTIC integrated EV + wind power + Battery swap station system (funded here by Macquarie bank and backed by Renault, google "Better Place", coming to Canberra in 2012) will only have about a MILLION cars by 2015/16 ish...
http://www.ted.com/talks/shai_agassi_on_electric_cars.html

Out of 800 million cars and trucks? When the world oil market could already be down 10% by then, or more, if we're at peak now? Ouch.

Yep, I think we'll adapt. 4 years ago when I formed a team that briefed the NSW Cross-benchers on this stuff I honestly didn't. Fred Nile was sitting there saying "We've got to build more NUKULAR power plants!" and I was aghast because at that stage EV's looked a million miles away. But again, too little too late

Eclipse Now, Other technologically advanced fuels now being developed will be driving conventional engines sooner rather than later.

Great quote below

"Far-flung exurban areas have swallowed up miles of greenfield, replacing farmland and woods with pavement and lawns, and costing taxpayers a fortune in what's possibly the least efficient form of infrastructure: providing utilities and public services to a small number of people spread out over an large area. The social impacts of sprawl are arguably just as harmful. Sprawl is unhealthy for people who live in it. And as we know from the Housing & Transportation Affordability Index, people who have to drive everywhere they go are at an economic disadvantage, as well — 

According to leading thinkers like Arthur C. Nelson and Christopher B. Leinberger, the majority of Americans no longer desire to live in auto-dependent suburban environments. Given the chance, many would trade large suburban houses for the walkability of an urban neighborhood. Middle-class North Americans are already beginning to move in large numbers back into central cities, while property values on the suburban fringe have plummeted.

The approaching end of sprawl is a good thing, but it leaves the future of the suburbs uncertain. Foreclosures, unemployment and retail losses have already been a disaster for many suburban towns, and experts warn that suburbs are fast becoming the next slums as middle-class residents are replaced by poorer people who've been priced out of the central cities. Already, much of the outmost ring of suburban North America is in steep decline. The suburbs have long been unsustainable, and now they are becoming ruins. What are the solutions for this new frontier?"

http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/010206.html